Ronald Carlton Vivian Piedade Noronha

Ronald Carlton Vivian Piedade Noronha - R P Noronha as he normally called himself and Ron to his friends, was born on May 14, 1916 in Hyderabad. His father was a railway engineer and mother a doctor. Being the only son , he was never sent to a regular school until he joined the Inter College in Vishakhapatnam. He passed his intermediate science at the young age of 14. He did his BA(Hon) from Loyala College Madras and went on to study at the London School of Economics , finally doing his B.Sc (Hon) in Economics from the London University. He lost his father when he was only 15 years of age. His early life was greatly influenced by his strong willed mother. Another strong influence on him in his formative years was that of his god mother, Sarojni Naidu, with whom he came in contact through his mother who was then a doctor in the erstwhile state of Hyderabad.

In his own words " I got into the ICS in a pleasantly casual fashion. When I went to England my mother had impressed on me the need to appear for the competitive examinations which I had no intention of doing . (my heart was set on a carrier as a photo journalist). After I had refrained from taking my first shot at the exam , my mother lost patience - and also perhaps some of her abounding faith in an only child and sent me all the forms duly filled up for the ICS. She also indicated delicately that if I did not appear, my allowance would die a sudden death. I appeared; much to my surprise, I got in. Even more to my surprise I topped the list of Indian candidates, and ever since then I have had no faith in competitive examination."

He joined the ICS in the erstwhile CP cadre and served as an administrator for thirty six years with distinction. He got married on the 14th of July 1941 to Amy Alvares from Nagpur, daughter of Mr JF Alvares Assistant Commissioner Excise, CP and Barar. They were blessed with a daughter Gabrielle in May 1942 while posted in Sagar. They were again blessed with a son Terence,in February 1946 while posted at Nagpur. Their third child Ashok was born in Bastar, in September 1950, where Mr. Noronha was serving as the Deputy Commissioner. Their fourth child Anjali was born in August 1959 at Raipur.

Mr Noronha's interests in life went way beyond the call of duty as a civil servant. A well known wild-life enthusiast and sportsman who eliminated a number of man eating tigers. He was also an avid angler, an expert photographer, a polyglot who picked up quickly languages like- Hindi French, German, Telegu, Punjabi and dialects like Gondi, Bundeli, Konkani etc, an expert cook - all this he combined in his personality with great aplomb and yet with greatest simplicity His love for the tribals and concern for the common man was proverbial.

Retirement from service meant for Noronha a return to his old passion - the village. He settled in a village near Bhopal to live out the struggle of a commoner and devote time to cultivation as also to writing down his experiences in his own inimitable style. This is borne out by a reading of his highly humane and interesting book titled " A Tale Told by an Idiot". His great sense of humour and love for jungle and village are borne out on going through his second book "Animal and other Animals" which was published posthumously.

His last moments were spent in his village near Bhopal where he succumbed to his first and fatal heart attack on the 23rd of November 1982.

As a tribute to his memory and service to his village, the village Panchayat of Sankal has passed a resolution renaming the village after him. (less)